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oAunt SMartha^s 
Corner Cupboard 























Five grave Senators, dressed in their robes, used to meet to decide what the 
price of the currants was to be. 




































AUNT MARTHAIS 
CORNER 
CUPBOARD 

^ NURY^ EUZABEXH KIRK 

American Version Edited by 
CAROL WILFORD 



Jllustr'dted hy 

MATILDA BREUER 


PUBLISHERS 

ALBERT WHITMAN^ S COMPANY 

CHICAGO 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 
Copyright 1928 

By Albert Whitman & Company 



ILLUSTRATED 
“JUST RIGHT EDITIONS” 
OF CHILDREN’S CLASSICS 

Man Without A Country 
Pied Piper of Hamelin 
Little Lame Prince 
Dog of Flanders 
King of The Golden River 



“Just Right Book” 
Made in the U. S. A. 


SEP -7 194b 

©CIA 3182 



INTRODUCTION 

*^Aunt MarthcLS Corner Cupboard” seems a singularly 
happy title for a hook. One immediately thinks of a 
kindly, white-haired old lady in the type of pleasant, old- 
fashioned house which would have a corner cupboard full 
of interesting and perhaps even delectable things. Reading 
of the book will confirm this idea. Aunt Martha is indeed a 
kindly old lady, and, not only that, but is an extremely 
interesting and well-informed and sprightly old lady with 
a wide knowledge of many subjects and a generous desire 
to share it in a delightful way with two nephews who are 
spending a vacation with her. 

These boys, much to their father s dismay, have 
brought home poor marks from school. Aunt Martha 
discerns the important fact that they are neither more lazy, 
nor more indifferent, nor more stupid than other boys of 


5 














their age. They have simply never been taught to observe 
things at hand, to feel a wondering curiosity about the ori¬ 
gin or history or development of countless things seen, 
eaten, handled or worn by them every day of their lives. 
She conceives the idea of attempting to awaken such a curi¬ 
osity, knowing that it will be accompanied by a quickening 
of interest in any kind of learning. 

The boys are accustomed to settle down by the fire late 
in the day for a story from Aunt Martha. On one such day, 
instead of telling one of the oft-repeated tales, of which 
they have confessed themselves a little weary, she tries a 
new form of story. Taking from her cupboard a tea-cup, 
she proceeds to tell them its history from the first use of it 
in China, down through the experiments of Palissy, to the 
elaborately decorated cups and saucers in use today. The 
story is a complete success, the boys are interested, and the 
scene is set for stories dealing with the other things con¬ 
tained in the cupboard. Tea, coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, 
flax, honey, raisins, glass, and many other things are 
brought out and explained for the boys’ entertainment. By 
the time they leave, they not only know something about 
many of the common things of their every-day life, but are 
eager to know of many others. 

Not every boy or girl is so fortunate as to have an 
''Aunt Martha” with a "corner cupboard.” By reading this 
little book, however, every boy or girl can feel for a time 
that he has. Not every boy or girl is blessed with a wonder¬ 
ing curiosity, but the ones who are will find the answers to 
some of their questions in this book. As for the ones who 
are not, they may, like the two boys in the book, be enter¬ 
tained by an entirely different kind of "story.” 

CAROL WILFORD. 


6 



CONTENTS 


Introduction, Carol Wilford . 5 

The Corner Cupboard . 9 

The Story of the Tea-cup . 15 

How the Tea-cup Was Finished. 24 

The Story of the Tea. 34 

The Story of the Sugar. 43 

The Story of the Coffee . 51 

The Story of the Salt . 61 

The Story of the Currants . 71 

The Story of the Flax. 76 

The Story of the Sponge . 83 

The Story of the Pepper . 89 

The Story of the Glass . 93 

The Story of the Cork . 99 

The Story of the Chocolate (Cocoa) . 105 

The Story of the Rice . 110 

The Story of the Honey. 118 


7 






































She lived in a house with gable ends. 


8 













































































AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


The Corner Cupboard 

AM afraid that Charley and 
Richard Knight gave their 
teacher a great deal of trouble. 

The school they attended had 
just broken up for the Christmas 
holidays, and neither of them 
had received good marks. In¬ 
deed, they were never likely to 
do so, judging from the way in 
which they went on. 

They were good-tempered lads, and favorites 
with their playmates. If they had a cake sent them 
from home, they always shared it with the rest of 
the school. And they were first and foremost at 
every game that was played. Their blue eyes were 
always twinkling with fun; and if they had been 
sent to Mr. Birch’s Academy merely to enjoy them¬ 
selves it would have been all very well. 



9 











10 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


But there is no use mincing the matter; they were 
the most idle lads in the school. Nobody could 
make them learn their lessons—not even Mr. Birch, 
though he was very strict, and now and then gave 
them a caning. 

It was a pity they were so idle. Their father 
was a learned man, and wished them to follow in 
his steps. It made him very unhappy when they 
came home with poor marks; and always by the 
next post, a long letter from the teacher to com¬ 
plain that he could not make them work. 

Their mother tried to excuse them and said, 
“There is time enough yet.” But their father was 
of another opinion, now that Richard was twelve 
years old; and he used to shake his head, and look 
very sad. 

This cold, snowy Christmas the boys were not 
going home. They had been promised that they 
should spend the holidays with their Aunt Martha; 
and her old-fashioned car was at the door to take 
them. 

They had not the least objection, for they were 
very fond of Aunt Martha, as indeed was everybody 
that had ever seen her. 

She lived in a house with gable ends, just as you 
turn into the village. It was a very old house, and 
was said to have been built in Revolutionary Days. 
It was quite covered with ivy; and there was a large 


THE CORNER CUPBOARD 


11 


garden, but the snow had hidden everything in it. 

The rooms were large, but very low. The one 
Aunt Martha liked the best had the morning sun 
upon it, and looked into the garden. And here she 
had her work-table, and her basket of knitting, for 
her eyes were not very good, now that she was get¬ 
ting old. And here she sat all the day long. 

Close by was her corner cupboard, that she kept 
locked, and the key was on a bunch that she car¬ 
ried in her pocket. She never left her cupboard open, 
because it had so many things in it. 

The boys knew the cupboard by heart. Out of it 
came sweet cakes, and honey and sugar, and tops 
and marbles, and all the things they liked. And 
there were no tiresome spelling-books, or grammars, 
or anything of the kind to plague them. 

But you must not suppose that Aunt Martha was 
an ignorant lady. Far from it. She knew many 
things indeed, and she did not like the thought that 
her nephews might grow up to be dunces, which 
was likely to be the case. 

Of course, she did not presume to think that she 
could teach them as well as Mr. Birch, who under¬ 
stood Latin and Greek, and had kept a school twen¬ 
ty years. But she had a scheme in her head to teach 
them something. 

Not that she intended them to learn lessons in 
the holidays,—that would have been extremely un- 


12 


AUNT MARTHA^S CORNER CUPBOARD 


kind. The knowledge that she meant to give them 
was not to be found in their lesson-books, thumbed 
and dog-eared as they were; for an idle boy can 
wear his book out without using it. No; the lore 
she was thinking about was contained close by, in 
her corner cupboard. 

It seemed to Aunt Martha—for she was a lady 
of a lively imagination—as if everything in that cup¬ 
board,— her china, her tea, her coffee, her sugar, 
even her needle,—had a story to tell, and a most 
entertaining one too. Had not many of the things 
been in foreign parts, where there are great palm- 
trees, and monkeys, and black men, and lions, and 
tigers? 

And if they had not been abroad, they were sure 
to have something to relate that the boys had never 
heard. 

The boys loved to hear stories told them, just 
when it got dusk, before the lamp was lighted. They 
would play about all day long, and pelt each other 
with snow-balls, and make slides on the pond, and 
scamper up and down the lane, till their legs, young 
as they were, began to feel tired. And then it was nice 
to sit on the hearth-rug before the fire, and hear Aunt 
Martha tell a tale. 

Now, Aunt Martha had prepared a great many 
tales, and had them, so to say, at her finger-ends. 
She did not have to make them up as she went on. 


THE CORNER CUPBOARD 


13 


for that would have spoilt everything. Indeed, I 
almost think she had learned them by heart. 

She hoped that when her boys had heard all the 
curious things she was about to relate, it would 
make them want to read for themselves. 

Charley and Richard had no idea of the trouble 
their good aunt was taking on their account, and 
they did just as they had always done. They rolled 
their hoops, and threw snow-balls, and scampered 
about to their heart’s content. And when, at last, 
their legs began to ache, good old Sally, who had 
lived with Aunt Martha for nearly thirty years, 
brought them in, took off their wet boots and put on 
dry ones, and brushed their hair, and washed their 
faces, and sent them into the parlor to their aunt. 

“She’ll have a story to tell, I warrant,” said old 
Sally, who was a little in the secret. 

Now, everything happened just as it should have. 

The boys wanted a story as much as ever, but, 
like the rest of the world, they wished for some¬ 
thing new. 

They were thoroughly acquainted with “Jack the 
Giant-killer,” and entertaining as he had once been, 
they were by this time a little tired of him. 

They knew “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding 
Hood” by heart, and they did not want to hear 
them over again. Not that they could get really 
tired of such delightful stories, but they “might lie 


14 


AUNT MARTHA S CORNER CUPBOARD 


by,” Charley said, “for one Christmas, and some¬ 
thing else come out.” 

Aunt Martha was quite willing—indeed, this was 
just what she had been planning for. Her dear old 
face brightened up and looked as pleased as could 
be, when Charley settled himself on the rug, and 
Richard brought a stool and sat close by, their 
merry blue eyes fixed intently upon her. 

Then Aunt Martha began to relate her first story 
—“The Story of a Tea-Cup.” 





The Stor3i^ of 
the Tea-cup 

)ME/’ as I daresay you have 
heard, “was not built in a day.’’ 

People who use the expres¬ 
sion, mean by it that nothing of 
any value can be done without 
a great deal of time and trouble. 

The tea-cup seem.s a simple 
thing, and you use and handle it 
very often, and drink your tea 
out of it every afternoon. But 
perhaps you have never been told its whole history, 
and do not know that it takes a vast amount of labor, 
and sets numbers of persons to work, before it can 
become a cup at all. 

I will speak of the best china, that is kept on the 
top shelf in the cupboard, and only comes out on 
high days and holidays. It is very superior, let me 
tell you, to the blue and white cups and saucers in 
the kitchen, that have no gold rim round them. 

The word china will remind you of a country a 



15 








16 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


long way off, where the gentlemen have long braids 
of hair hanging down their backs, and the ladies 
hobble about in little shoes turned up at the toes. 

The Chinaman drinks a great deal of tea, because 
he likes it, and the tea grows in his country. And 
the tea-cups are always being handed about on little 
trays, that everybody may have some. So the China¬ 
man has a great deal of practice in making tea-cups, 
and can do it remarkably well. 

I am sorry to say that he is not of an open dis¬ 
position, and likes to keep everything he knows to 
himself. 

He would not tell the people who lived in other 
countries how he made his cups, though they were 
very curious to know, and asked him over and over 
again. 

There is a town in China where a great many 
potters lived, and made their beautiful cups. The 
streets were quite crowded with the potters, and 
boat-loads of rice came every day for them to eat. 

There was a river close by the town; and when 
the cups and pots were finished, they were packed 
and sent away in the boats. The potter’s furnaces 
were always burning to bake the cups, so that at 
night the town looked as if it were on fire. 

The potters would not let a stranger stay all 
night in the place, for fear he should find out the 
secret of cup-making. He was obliged either to 


THE TEA CUP 


17 



sleep in one of the boats, or to go away till the next 
morning. 

But it happened that two strangers had been on 
the watch for a long time, and at last they thought 
they had found out the secret. 

bne day they bought some great squares, or 
bricks, that were being sold in the market and car¬ 
ried off by the potters. They felt quite sure that 
this was the stuff of which the cups were made. 
Now the bricks were sold to be used in the potteries. 























18 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


They were made of a kind of flint called petunse, 
which looks bright and glittering, as if it had been 
sprinkled with something to make it shine. And the 
Chinaman collects it with great care, and grinds it 
to powder, and makes the bricks of it. 

The two strangers carried the bricks home to 
their own country, and set to work to make cups. 

But, alas! they could do nothing. 

They were like a workman who had left half 
his tools behind him. For they needed another sub¬ 
stance to mix with the petunse, and that was called 
kaolin. 

Now kaolin was dug by the Chinaman out of 
some deep mines, that he knew very well and often 
visited. 

It lay about in little lumps, and he picked it out, 
and made it into bricks just as he had done the 
other. 

x^nd he laughed very much when he heard what 
the barbarians,’’ as he called them, had been trying 
to do. For he did not pity them in the least. 

“They think themselves very clever,” he said, “to 
make a body that shall be all flesh and no bones. 

He meant that the kaolin was hard, and could 
not turn to powder when it was burnt as the petunse 
did; so that it was like bones to the cup, and made 
it firm. Indeed, without it the cup was too soft, and 
did not hold together. 


THE TEA CL P 


19 


1 should not have told you this long story if it 
had nothing to do with the best china. But people 
can get a kind of clay out of our own country that 
does quite as well as the Chinaman’s bricks, and the 
best china is always made of it. People come a long 
way to look for the “porcelain clay,” as it is called; 
and they dig it out of the earth, and carry it to a 
great building that is, in fact, a porcelain manu¬ 
factory, where all kinds of cups and saucers, and 
jugs and basins are constantly being made. 

And as soon as the clay gets there, it is thrust 
into a machine, where it runs upon a number of 
sharp knives that work round and round, and have 
been set there on purpose to chop it to pieces. When 
it has been chopped long enough, it is turned into a 
kind of churn, and churned as though it were going 
to be made into butter. Indeed, when the churning 
is over, the person who has churned it calls it “clay- 
cream.” 

Other matters, such as flint and bone, are now 
mixed with it. But, in order that they might work 
in harmony one with the other, the flint and the 
bone each have to be ground to a fine powder, and 
then made like itself into “clay-cream.” 

The two creams in two separate vessels, are car¬ 
ried to a room called “mixing-room,” and put into 
a pan of water and stirred well. 


20 


AVIST MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


They are stirred until they are quite smooth, and 
without an atom of grit. 

But as cups can not be made of the clay-cream, 
it has to be made solid again. And it is boiled over 
a fire until the moisture is dried up, and it is very 
much like dough. A man now begins to slap and 
beat it, and cut it into pieces, and to fling the pieces 
one on the other with all his might. And when he 
has slapped it long enough, it is “ready for the 
potter.” 

The potter is called “a thrower,”—and it is a 
good name for him. 

He flings a ball of clay on the little round table 
before him, with such force that it sticks quite fast. 

The table is called a whirling table; and well it 
might, for it begins to whirl round and round very 
swiftly. 

The reason why it whirls is because a long strap 
goes from it to a wheel in the corner, that a boy is 
turning. When the boy turns his wheel, the table 
turns as well. And as the table goes round, the potter 
begins to pinch and pat, and work the clay about 
with his fingers and thumb, and give it what he calls 
“a shape.” 

He can do just what he likes with the clay, and 
can make it into any shape he pleases. 

He has some tools to help him, such as little pegs 
and bits of wood, with which he scrapes it on the 



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day about with his fingers. 


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22 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


outside and presses it on the inside, until he has 
brought it into the form of a cup. And all the while 
the wheel keeps going round and round, until it is 
enough to make you giddy. 

At last the wheel stops and so does the table. And 
the clay is taken off looking very much like a cup. 

Aunt Martha had scarcely time to finish the last 
sentence before there was a tap at the door, and old 
Sally came in with the tea-things. 

Now the best china had been taken down and 
carefully dusted; for Christmas was looked upon as 
a high day and a holiday, and Charley and Richard 
were company, as a matter of course. As their heads 
were still running upon cups and saucers, they jump¬ 
ed up and began to look at them, and talk about 
‘‘flint,’’ and “clay,” and “kilns,” in a very learned 
manner, and one that made old Sally smile. 

Aunt Martha was very much pleased, for she saw 
that her story had been carefully listened to, and 
had not gone in at one ear and out at the other, as 
such instructive stories do sometimes. 

And she was more pleased still, when her little 
nephews asked her a great many questions, and 
wanted to know more about the “tea-cup.” 

She did not tell them any more just then for she 
was a wise old lady, and she wished to keep their 
curiosity awake, and not let them have too much 
of the subject at once. 


THE TEA CUP 


23 


So she talked about something else all tea-time, 
and then she got out puzzles and other games, to 
make the evening pass pleasantly. But old Sally told 
her that when the boys went to bed, and she turned 
out their light, they were still talking about the “tea¬ 
cup.” 

And the next afternoon, when they had finished 
running about, and their hair had been brushed, and 
their faces washed, they ran into the parlor where 
their aunt was sitting, and asked her to go on with 
her story, for they wanted to know a great deal more. 

Now it was rather early, and Aunt Martha had 
hardly finished her afternoon’s nap. But she did not 
like to keep the boys waiting. So she roused herself 
up, put a log of wood on the fire,— for it was very 
cold,—and when Charley and Richard had settled 
themselves, she began, or rather went on with—“The 
Story of the Tea-Cup.” 



^ow the Tea cup 
\pas finished 


HE cup is, as I told you, taken off 
the wheel. It is then set aside to 
dry; and very soon it reaches 
what the potter calls “the green 
state”—though he might better 
say the hard state—for it is get¬ 
ting gradually harder. It is next 
taken to the turning-table, and has all its roughness 
smoothed away, and its appearance is very much im¬ 
proved. Still, it is by no means so handsome as cups 
are now; and it has no handle. 

The Chinaman makes his cup without a handle; 
and when tea-cups were first used in this country, 
they had no handles, and were very much smaller 
than they are now. People in those days could not 
afford to drink much tea at a time, it was so dear and 
so scarce. 



24 






HOW THE TEA CUP WAS FINISHED 


25 


But fashions are always changing, and in our 
days every cup must have a handle. 

The handle was made separate from the cup, and 
fitted on afterwards. It was nothing but a strip of 
clay cut the proper length, and pressed into a mould 
to make it the right shape. The man who has to do 
it, takes a great deal of pains to make it fit very 
neatly. 

The parts where the handle is to join the cup 
are wetted with a certain mixture of clay and water, 
to make them stick; and they do so at once. 

The cup is now put into a square box, or case, 
with sand at the bottom. Other cups are placed in 
with it, though care is taken to prevent them from 
touching each other. Another box, just like it, and 
full of cups, is set over it, so that the bottom of one 
box makes a lid for the other. All the boxes, piled 
up in this way, are put into an oven, called “the pot¬ 
ter’s kiln.” It is in the shape of a cone, and with a hole 
at the top to let the smoke out. 

The Chinaman takes the trouble of putting each 
cup into a separate box, in order, as he says, that its 
delicate complexion may not be spoilt by the fire! 

When the cup is taken from the box, it is pure 
white, and nearly transparent. It is not yet thought 
worthy of the name of porcelain, and is merely called 
“biscuit china.” 

It was a long time before people found out how to 


26 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


paint pictures on the cup, or to give it its beautiful 
gloss. 

The surface of the cup was not hard enough to 
hold the colors, and needed a coating upon it that is 
called “enamel.” 

No one knew how to make the enamel, except the 
Chinaman. But a potter named Bernard Pallissy tried 
again and again to make it. 

He made cup after cup and coated them over with 
what he thought was the right thing; but not one of 
them would do. And at last he became so poor that 
he had no wood left to heat his furnace—just at the 
time, too, when more cups were ready to go into it. 

He wanted wood to such a degree that he became 
quite frantic, and felt that he must put something into 
his furnace, he did not care what. And he ran into the 
room where his wife was sitting, and snatched up the 
chairs and tables as if he were crazy and ran with 
them to his furnace. 

Poor Madame Pallissy wrote a book about her 
troubles, at which I do not wonder. It is a comfort to 
know that he succeeded at last, and earned a great 
deal of money. But many improvements have been 
made in tea-cups since his time. 

Before the pictures are painted on the cup, it is 
nicely cleaned, to remove any atom of dust; and then 
it has to be glossed, or, as it is called, “glazed.” The 
stuff that give it its gloss, and makes it shine, looks 


HOW THE TEA CUP WAS FINISHED 


27 



like thick cream, and is kept in wooden troughs in a 
room called “the dipping-room/’ 

A man dips the cup into the trough and turns it 
about in such a way that every part shall be coated, 
and yet every drop drained out. 

It is now put on a board, and, with other cups, 
again baked, but in a cooler oven than before. When 
it comes out of the oven it shines with the beautiful 
gloss you see. 

But it is not finished; for it is a bare cup, without 
any pictures of flowers or fruit, or figures like those 
on the best china. 










28 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


It is taken to a room where there are long tables, 
and a great many windows to let in the light. 

People sit at the tables, with brushes and colors 
before them, and paint the cups. 

In China one man paints nothing but red, another 
nothing but blue, and so on. But here, in the paint¬ 
ing-room, there is a little difference. One man paints 
flowers, another leaves, another fruit, and another 
figures. 

The colors they use are made of metals—such as 
gold, iron, and tin—for nothing else can stand the 
heat of the furnace, in which the cups must once more 
be baked. Indeed, the painter now and then pops his 
cup or his saucer into the kiln to see how the colors 
will stand, before it is quite finished. 

When the cup has been painted, and baked for the 
last time, it is taken to another room still, where there 
are a great many women and girls at work. 

Each girl sits with her face to the light, and takes 
a cup in one hand, and a stone called an agate in the 
other. She rubs the parts of the cup that are intended 
to look like gold with the stone until they become of 
a brilliant gloss, and shine as if they were gold. 

There is a place in Staffordshire called “the Pot¬ 
teries,” where cups and pots have always been made. 

In olden times they were very rough-looking 
things, and had neither gilding nor gloss. But the 


HOW THE TEA CUP WAS FINISHED 


29 



People sit at the tables with brushes and colors before them, 
and paint the cups. 

people who used them were just as rough, and so was 
the country round. 

The roads were very bad indeed, and full of deep 
ruts, so that no carriage could go over them. There 
were no towns or factories, and the potter lived in a 
little thatched cottage like a hovel. 

He had a shed where he worked at his wheel and 
baked his pots. He dug the clay out himself, and his 
boys helped him to ‘‘throw” and “press,” and do all 
that was wanted to be done. 

When he had finished making his pots, his wife 
used to bring up the asses from the common, where 
























30 


AUNT MARTHA S CORNER CUPBOARD 


they were grazing, and get them ready for a journey. 
She put panniers on their backs, filled with her hus¬ 
band’s pots; and then she set off, over the bad, rutty 
roads, to the towns and villages to sell them. 

That part of Staffordshire is still called “the Pot¬ 
teries” ; but it is very much improved—and has great 
towns, and factories, and good roads, and is not at all 
what it used to be. 

One of the towns is called Burslem; and a potter 
named Mr. Wedgwood lived there. He spent all his 
life in making the cups of a more beautiful kind than 
had ever been made before. They were of a cream 
color; and instead of the ugly figures that were in 
fashion then, he painted them with flowers and fruit, 
as we see them now. 

One reason why he got on so well was because he 
took so much pains, and would not let anything pass 
unless it was perfect. If a cup came off the wheel with 
the slightest fault in it, he would break it to pieces 
with his stick, and say, “This will not do for me.” 

Charley and Richard were so interested in what 
Aunt Martha had been telling them, that old Sally 
tapped at the door twice before they heard her. And 
then, when she had brought in the tea, and the muf¬ 
fins hot out of the oven, they could neither eat nor 
drink for talking about “the tea-cups.” And Richard 
began to wonder what Aunt Martha’s next story 
would be about, and tried to make her tell him. But 


HOW THE TEA CUP WAS FINISHED 


31 


She put panniers on their hacks, filled with her husband’s pots. 



he did not think this would be wise; and all he could 
ascertain was that the subject of it would come out of 
her corner cupboard. 

It was clear, however, that the story had done 
them good; for the next morning, Charley and Rich¬ 
ard, instead of spending every moment in play, 
walked up and down the garden-walk, talking about 
the clay, and the glaze, and the enamel—things they 
had known nothing about before. 

But their greatest pleasure was to come; for stroll¬ 
ing out by the gate into the lane, they spied, all at 
once, some bits of broken pot. You would have 
thought they had found something very precious, 
indeed, they were so pleased. They picked them up. 






32 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


and carried them off in triumph into the old tool- 
house, where Charley at once set to work with a great 
stone to pound them to powder. He had nearly 
broken them up, to mix with some clay that Richard 
brought out of the ditch, when the thought struck 
him that these blue and white pieces of pot were not 
like Aunt Martha’s best china. He would go in and 
ask her if they were. 

Aunt Martha was seated at her work-table, in the 
parlor, when the boys came running in. She told them 
that Charley was right. Her best cups and saucers 
had the patterns painted on them, and required more 
skill to make than these. 

Common blue and white cups—such as Charley 
had a bit of in his hand—^were managed in quite an¬ 
other way. A paper, with the pattern printed on it, 
was wrapped round each cup. The cup was rubbed 
for a long time, and then set in water. The paper soon 
peeled off, but the blue marks were left behind. 

Richard and Charley wanted to know a great deal 
more; but Aunt Martha would not answer any of 
their questions. So they went back to the tool-house 
again, to play at potters. What delightful work it 
was! So delightful, that Charley made up his mind 
to be a potter as soon as he was old enough,—and if 
his father would let him. 

Richard said, if he were a potter he ought to go to 
China; and then he remembered his dog’s-eared geog- 


THE TEA CUP 


33 


raphy in his desk at school, and thought when he got 
back he would look into it, and see if it said anything 
about China. He should like to know a little more 
than Aunt Martha had told them. 

That afternoon old Sally had to keep the boys 
from going into the parlor too soon; for they were 
ready half an hour before the usual time. 

But good Aunt Martha was ready; and when she 
heard their feet pattering along the hall, she got up 
and opened the door. Then Charley settled himself 
on the hearth-rug, and Richard fetched a stool; and 
the boys were as still as mice while Aunt Martha told 
them—“The Story of the Tea.” 



The Stor^ of 
1he Tea 



use, if it is kept only to 
look at. It needs to be filled 
with good strong tea. 

I wonder what people 
did before tea was brought 
to England; for it is not, as 
everybody knows, a native 
of this climate. It grows in China, where the beauti¬ 
ful cups are made on purpose to hold it. And it was 
sipped by emperors on their thrones, and by their 
grand mandarins, many years before we knew any¬ 
thing about it. And even now, the best of the tea is 
kept at home for the benefit of the Court, and it is 
only the next best that finds its way into our tea-pots. 

About two hundred and fifty years ago, there was 


34 









THE TEA 


35 


no tea in England except what people made of their 
herbs that grew in their gardens, such as mint, and 
thyme, and sage; no one, not even their majesties 
the kings and queens, had ever tasted a cup of real 
Chinese tea. 

But it happened in the year 1610 —for I daresay 
you would like to know the date—some Dutch ships 
brought a little tea to Holland; and then a little more 
was brought home to England, and people talked 
about it as “a new drink that came from China.” 

Everybody would have liked to taste some of it, 
but it was very difficult to get; and when a present of 
two pounds of tea was made to the king, he thought 
it a very handsome gift indeed. 

Not many people could buy tea in those days; and 
even when they did get it, they hardly knew whether 
it was to be eaten or drunk. 

There is a funny story of two old people, who had 
an ounce of tea sent to them, and who were quite at 
a loss what to do with it. At last, the old lady pro¬ 
posed to her husband that they should sprinkle it on 
their bacon, and eat it; which they accordingly did— 
and very nasty it must have been. 

By slow degrees, however, tea found its way to 
every home in England; and in these days every one 
can afford to buy it. It is welcomed in the palace of 
the King, and it affords refreshment to the poorest 
cottager. A cup of tea is equally grateful to all. 


36 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


It must be confessed that the tea makes its appear¬ 
ance under great disadvantages. No one who has seen 
it growing in the Flowery Land of its birth can, sup¬ 
pose it to be the same thing. And it is rather whimsi¬ 
cal as to where it does grow. The north is too cold, 
and the south is too hot; but there is a middle tract 
country neither too hot nor too cold, that suits it the 
best. 

It is called by the Chinaman Thea or Tha, and 
from this word comes our English name, tea. 

It has white flowers, a little like the wild rose; and 
when the flowers are gone there come some green 
pods, that contain the seed. 

The Chinaman is very careful how he sows his 
seeds, because his next crop is to come from them. 
And he sows six or seven seeds in one hole, to be 
quite sure that some of them will come up. 

The leaves are, as you may suppose, the most im¬ 
portant part of the plant. They are very handsome 
and glossy, like the leaves of the camelia that lives 
in the hothouse. But it is not on account of their 
beauty they are so much valued; they have some good 
qualities that no other leaves possess. 

When a person drinks a cup of tea, how refreshed 
he feels! That is because of the reviving and strength¬ 
ening quality in the leaf. The leaf also has in it a 
bitter substance called Thein—or, as it might be 
styled, pure extract of tea; and this has a great effect 



It was sipped by emperors on their high thrones 
and by their grand mandarins. 


37 
































38 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


in taking away the feeling of being wearied. 

The Chinaman has his tea-plantation, just as we 
have our vegetable-garden, or the Irishman has his 
potato-ground. It is called “tea-farm”; and the 
farmer lives close by, in a funny little house, like 
a pagoda, with long-pointed eaves to it. 

He and his wife are always busy in the planta¬ 
tion, for she helps him weed and water, and her 
feet have no little shoes to pinch them. She could 
not afford to hobble about as the fine ladies do, or 
to be carried in a sedan. 

In the early spring, when the young leaves are 
newly put forth, and have a delicious flavor, the 
family begins to be very busy. The children come 
into the plantation and strip them off, until the 
branches are nearly bare. But they leave enough 
for another gathering by-and-by. 

Of course, the young tender leaves are the best, 
and make the nicest tea. The Chinaman calls it 
Souchong. When the leaves that are left get older, 
they are gathered; but they are not so delicate, and 
people do not like them so well. 

There is still a third gathering, but this is worse 
than the last, and makes very poor tea. 

When the leaves are stripped off, they are thrown 
into some shallow baskets, and set in the sun, where 
the wind can blow on them to dry them. They are 
then put in a pan, and placed on a stove with a 


THE TEA 


39 



The children strip the leaves off. 


fire under it, to be dried still more. While they are 
over the fire they are stirred about with a brush 
until they are quite dry. 

You may see that the tea-leaf is rolled up and 
crumpled, and that it comes straight when it is put 
into the water. The Chinaman takes the trouble to 
roll it in this way. He does it at a board, and rolls 
the leaf between his fingers. After this has been 
done, he again dries the leaves over the fire. 

He takes pains to pick out all the bad leaves and 
throw them away. He knows his tea will be looked 







40 


AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD 


at, before it can be sold to a person who knows 
good tea from bad. 

This person is a tea-merchant and lives in the 
next town. All day long, the farmers keep coming 
into the office where he sits, with chests of tea slung 
over their shoulders. They want him to buy, and 
he is quite willing. Indeed, the more he can get the 
better, for he wants to send it in a ship to Europe. 

But he always makes the farmer open his chest 
and spread his tea out before him. He looks at it 
very sharply, and takes it in his hand and smells it; 
and he would find out in a minute if any bad leaves 
were left in it. But if it is really good tea, he gives 
the farmer some money for it, and sends him away. 

The farmer goes to the market and lays out 
some of his money,—though he is very saving and 
thrifty, or he would not be a Chinaman. 

It was a good thing that old Sally just then came 
in with the tea, for that was what Charley and 
Richard wanted. Not that they were either hungry 
or thirsty; but it was delightful to jump up and 
look at the tea in the caddy, as Aunt Martha took 
it out with a scoop. 

It was better still to watch the water being 
poured on it, and to see the tea-leaves begin to un¬ 
roll themselves and to get quite flat. Charley clap¬ 
ped his hands with glee, and they both skipped 
round the room, saying they had never enjoyed a 


THE TEA 


41 


The farmers come with chests of tea slung over their shoulders. 



cup of tea SO much as now that they knew some¬ 
thing about it. 

And the very next afternoon Charley and Rich¬ 
ard found their way to a room they had never much 
cared about before. This room was called the li¬ 
brary, and had rows and rows of shelves, with many 
books upon them. 

But besides the books upon the shelves, there 
were others on the table. And Charley, who was 
thinking very much about foreign countries, was 
glad to find a book lying open on Aunt Martha’s 
desk, telling all about India and China. It was full 
of pictures; among them were some potters making 
cups and other vessels, and of people picking off 
the leaves of the tea-plant. 


42 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


How quickly the time passed in looking at them! 
Instead of being tired of doing nothing, as Charley 
very often was when it rained and he could not 
play out of doors, the time seemed to fly; and Aunt 
Martha had finished her nap and taken her knitting, 
and was ready to tell her story, almost before they 
were ready to hear it. 

Not that they were a moment too late; oh no!— 
they wanted very much to know more about the 
contents of Aunt Martha’s corner cupboard, and 
were very glad when, without any delay, she began 
—‘‘The Story of the Sugar.” 




The Storj of 
the Sugar 

VERYBODY likes sugar. The 
Christmas pudding would be 
nothing without it; and the 
plum-cake, and the tarts, and 
the custards, and all the nice 
things that boys are so fond of, 
would have no sweet taste in 
them if it were not for the sugar. 
But its range is much wider 
than this. It is found in the ripe peach on the wall, 
and in the juicy nectarine. The bee knows the 
taste of it well, and finds it hidden deep in the bell 
of the flower. It lurks in the grape, and the orange, 
and fruits too many for me to name. 

And it finds its way into the stems of plants, 
and makes their juice sweet and delicious. There 
is a tall, reed-like plant, with a yellow stem. It is 
called the sugar-cane, because there is so much 
sugar in it. 



43 



44 


AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD 


In some places, people are always chewing it. 
They cut it with their knives to make the juice 
come out, and go on cutting and chewing all day 
long. 

The sugar-cane grows in very hot countries, 
where black people live and monkeys run about on 
the trees. The burning sun pours its rays full upon 
it; but this is what it likes, and what makes its juice 
so sweet. There is an island in the West Indies, called 
Cuba and the sugar-cane grows there, and we get a 
great deal of sugar from it. 

A great giant called Steam helps to make the 
sugar now, and does more than all the black people 
put together. People did not find out all at once 
how helpful he was, and that he could turn mills, 
and push carriages, and do all kinds of things. But 
they were very glad when they did know it; and 
when he began to help them to make the sugar. 
For weights, and rollers, and heavy wheels are 
nothing to him. 

A sugar-plantation is a very pretty sight. The 
tall yellow canes rustle in the wind; and at the top 
is a tuft of flowers, that looks like a silvery plume. 
And here and there black people are busy at work, 
hoeing and weeding. The women have blue and 
scarlet handkerchiefs tied round their heads, for 
they dearly love a bit of finery. 

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, when all 



The sugar grows where monkeys run about on the trees. 

45 






















46 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


is Still and cool, and the moon is shining, a troop 
of monkeys come racing down from some moun¬ 
tains near. Then woe betide the sugar-canes! 

The monkeys love the taste of sugar; and they 
clutch at the canes with their long fingers, and pull 
them up, and bite them, and do a great deal of mis¬ 
chief. 

Happily, the black man has a fancy for roasted 
monkey,—a dish we never see in America; and he 
thinks it no trouble to sit watching hour after hour, 
with his gun in his hand, waiting for the monkeys. 

Down they come on the full run, and do not see 
him at once. But pop goes the gun, and one or an¬ 
other is sure to be shot. 

It is time that I told you of a fact connected with 
the history of the sugar-cane. The stem is not hol¬ 
low like the grass or the reed, but it is solid, and filled 
with the sweet juice we have been talking about, 
which makes the sugar. 

But the juice, before anything is done to it is very 
wholesome, and people who suck it are sure to be 
strong and healthy. Even the horses that work in 
the sugar-mill get as fat as can be, for they are al¬ 
ways chewing the canes. And nothing fattens poul¬ 
try half so well,—and there are plenty of fowls peck¬ 
ing about in the negro’s little garden. 

But the juice is too good to be wasted. It forms 
the material of that vast supply of sugar met with 


THE SUGAR 


47 



everywhere in every town, and village, and house¬ 
hold. And it has to go through a great many stages, 
and pass through a great many hands, like the tea¬ 
cup. 

In the first place, the beautiful yellow canes are 
cut down close to the ground, and tied up in bundles. 
Then they are carried to a mill, and the big giant 
Steam, in places where he has been set to work, sends 
great iron rollers over them, and squeezes out every 
drop of juice. 












48 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


The juice runs into a cistern, and is made hot, 
lest it should turn sour; and a little lime is put in 
with it, to make it clear, and then the liquor is boiled 
very fast indeed. 

When it has stopped boiling, and is set to cool, 
there will be a great many sparkling crystals in it, 
which are the real sugar. But the crystals are mixed 
up with a thick stuff, called molasses, which must 
be removed. 

Now the giant Steam is set to work. The liquor 
is poured into a large square box made of iron, and 
divided into two chambers, an upper and a lower. 
The liquor is poured into the upper chamber, on a 
floor made of wire like a sieve. Then the good-na¬ 
tured giant begins to pump the air out of the lower 
chamber. Now nature abhors a vacuum, and always 
finds something to fill it. So the liquid molasses 
comes pouring down, through the sieve, into the 
lower part of the box. The sugar that has become 
crystallized cannot run through the sieve for the 
holes are too fine for it to get through; so it is left 
behind, and that is just what the sugar-maker wants. 

The food with which the giant fills his capacious 
maw is the raw sugar-cane, after all the juice has 
been squeezed out. It burns well, there is plenty to 
be had, and it does not cost a penny. 

When the sugar is made, it is packed in great 
casks, and sent to America. 


THE SUGAR 


49 


After it gets here, some of it goes through an¬ 
other process, and is made white, and into tall cone- 
shaped loaves. This is called “lump-sugar;” and the 
other goes by the name of “raw.” 

Aunt Martha had hardly finished speaking when 
Charley, who was seated before the fire with his el¬ 
bows on his knees and his chin between his hands, 
observed that monkeys had a better time of it than 
boys had. If he had been a monkey, he should not 
have minded. Just think how pleasant it would be 
to pop down among those sugar-canes! 

Richard said he did not think so. Charley might 
like the chances of being shot, and roasted for a black 
man’s dinner but he preferred less sugar and a safe 
life. Not that he pitied the monkeys for being shot; 
it served them right for being so greedy as to pull 
down the canes. 

Charley could not agree with this. “Sugar,” he 
said, “Was so tempting—^nobody knew how tempt¬ 
ing,” added he, rising and looking wistfully at the 
old-fashioned sugar-basin heaped up with lumps of 
sugar which old Sally was taking out of the corner 
cupboard. That basin was very full—too full; he 
feared that top lump would topple over. A remark 
which made Aunt Martha smile, and say that if he 
could find a safer place for it, he might. 

Charley said he knew of one much safer; and, 
opening his mouth, waited for old Sally to pop it in. 


50 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


Then he thanked his aunt and they sat down to tea. 

The next morning the two boys were early, and 
went into the kitchen just as old Sally was putting 
the coffee-berries into the mill to grind for break¬ 
fast. Charley asked where they came from, and what 
they were. Old Sally said she was not book-learned; 
if they wanted to know, they had better ask their 
aunt. 

The boys said they must; so when Aunt Martha 
came down, it was agreed that her next tale should 
be—‘‘The Story of the Coffee.’’ 







The StoT)^ of 

the Coffee 



HEN the morning sun shines 
cheerily on the window, and 
the snow-white cloth is spread 
on the table, coffee is always 
present. There are few break¬ 
fast-tables in the world where 
it is not to be found. 

You may know it is there by the pleasant odor it 
spreads around. It is as nice to drink as tea, and a 
great deal more strengthening. Many a poor man 
can work hard from morning till night and not drink 
anything stronger than coffee. 

It was a long time before coffee was brought to 
England; but in the reign of Oliver Cromwell a 
merchant who use to go Turkey, to trade there, 
brought home with him a Greek servant. This man 
had tasted coffee—for the Turks drink a great deal 
of it, just as the Chinese drink a great deal of tea— 
and he knew how nice it was. 


51 







52 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


He brought some berries home with him, and 
used to make coffee, and let people in London have 
some of it. Indeed, at last he got so famous for his 
coffee, and so much talked about, that he set up a 
coffee house; that is, a house where coffee is sold 
instead of beer. 

Perhaps you would like to know where this first 
coffee-house was, for there are plenty of them now 
in every town in England. It was in George’s Yard, 
Lombard Street. This Lombard Street is in the very 
heart of the business world; and it gets its name be¬ 
cause some Jews from Lombardy once came to live 
there. They used to lend money, for which they made 
people pay a great deal. 

Bankers now live in Lombard Street, and their 
name comes from the Jews. The Jews had benches 
with their bags of gold upon them, and there they 
used to stand and carry on their trade. Now, banco 
in Italian means bench; and this became corrupted 
into banker, a man who lends money as the Jews 
did. But all this has nothing to do with coffee. 

From the little coffee-house in Lombard Street, 
in London the habit of drinking coffee spread all over 
the world. 

At first, like tea, it cost a great deal of money; 
and it was brought from only one small province in 
Arabia, called Yemen. 



He set up a coffee house. 
53 
















































































































































54 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


I should tell you that Arabia is divided into three 
parts. One is all stones and rocks; and another all 
sand and desert. But there is a third region, called 
“Happy Arabia,” which is full of gardens, and vine¬ 
yards, and olive-trees. And here is the province of 
Yemen. 

Mocha is the chief town, and the place where the 
coffee comes from. It stands close to the sea-shore, 
on a very sandy plain, and at the entrance to the 
Red Sea. 

The entrance to the Red Sea is through some 
dangerous straits called “Bab-el-mandeb,” or “the 
Gate of Tears,” because so many ships are wrecked 
there. Indeed, the Arab, who is very fanciful, says 
that the spirit of the storm is always perched on a 
rock that overlooks the straits. 

A lady in Mocha, when she goes out for an eve¬ 
ning visit, carries on her arm a little bag of coffee, 
and has it boiled when she gets there. And all over 
the town people are to be seen lying on the ground, 
under awnings spread to screen them from the sun. 
These are their coffee-houses; and there they do noth¬ 
ing all day but sip coffee and smoke their pipes. 

The people of Mocha pretend that they like cof¬ 
fee best when it is made of the husk of the coffee- 
berry, and not of the berry itself. 

But all the coffee that Mocha and the province 
round could supply was very little, compared to 


THE COFFEE 


55 


what is used now; and, of course, the price of coffee 
was extremely high. So, when it began to be so much 
liked, the kings and queens in the different countries 
of Europe set about having coffee planted in all 
places where it would grow. 

The French sent some coffee-plants to one of 
their islands in the West Indies, in order to have a 
plantation there. An officer had the care of the 
plant, and he sailed in a ship from Amsterdam. He 
had a long and very stormy passage, and the wind 
prevented the ship from making headway. 

It might have been said of the people on board as 
it is in the poem.— 

“Water, water everywhere, 

And not a drop to drink!” 

In fact, the water on board was nearly all used 
up, and no more was to be had until they came to 
their journey’s end. Each man was allowed only a 
very small quantity a day, and they often suffered 
from thirst. 

The French officer had no more given to him than 
the rest, and he would gladly have quenched his 
thirst. But, alas! the tender plants he was cherish¬ 
ing with such care began to droop. They too wanted 
water; and rather than let them die, he went with¬ 
out himself, and poured the scanty supply given him 
on their roots. 

The crew laughed at him, and he had to bear a 


56 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


great many rude speeches. But, thanks to this act of 
self-denial, the plants were able to live until the ves¬ 
sel came at last to land. Then the brave officer 
received his reward. The plants grew and multi¬ 
plied, and became great plantations, that supplied 
other countries and islands. 

Many places now furnish coffee in the greatest 
abundance. Brazil sends out almost enough to sup¬ 
ply the world. The plant had grown wild in the 
island of Ceylon from the earliest times, and the 
natives used to pluck the leaves and mix them with 
their food to give it a flavor; they also made gar¬ 
lands of its flowers to decorate their temples; but it 
was a very long time before they made any use of 
the berries. 

When the coffee-plant is left to nature it grows 
rather tall. But, as a rule, its top is cut off to make 
it throw out more branches. The leaves are ever¬ 
green; and the flowers are white, and a little like 
those of the jessamine. 

When the berry is ripe it is red, and like a great 
cherry. There are two hard seeds in it, like beans, 
that are known to every one, for they are ground 
into coffee. In many plantations they fall to the 
ground, and lie under the tree until they are picked 
up. But in Arabia this is not the custom. 

The planter, as he is called, spreads a cloth on 
the ground, and then shakes the tree, so that the 


THE COFFEE 


57 



When the coffee plant is left to nature it grows rather tall. 


ripe berries drop off. He then puts them on mats, 
and lets them lie in the sun till they are dry. And 
then the husk is broken by a roller, and the berries 
taken out. All his trouble is amply repaid, for this 
Arabian coffee is the best in the world. 

The coffee-berries must still be roasted, and then 
ground to powder. They are brought to England, 
however, before they are ground. Many people have 
little coffee-mills in their houses, into which the ber¬ 
ries are put, to be ground for breakfast. By this 
means they can obtain the coffee in a state of purity. 
For it is the custom in these days to mix the ground 
coffee with the roots of a plant called chicory, to 
make it go further. This is done to such an extent, 
that a law has been made compelling the person who 



58 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


sells coffee to declare whether it is pure or not. And 
if it is mixed, he is obliged to print on the packet 
the words, “Coffee and Chicory.” 

The coffee-plant has a great many enemies. Wild 
cats climb up the stem and run along the branches 
to get at the berries; and the squirrel nibbles them 
as he does nuts; to say nothing of the monkeys, who 
are always ready for a taste. 

In Ceylon, there is a kind of rat that lives in the 
forest, and makes its nest in the roots of the trees. 
It comes into the plantation in swarms to feed on 
the berries. Its teeth are as sharp as a pair of scis¬ 
sors ; and it gnaws through the branch that has the 
fruit upon it, and lets it fall to the ground, where it 
can feast at its leisure. It is very provoking to the 
planter to find all the delicate twigs and branches 
cut off, and he wages war against the rats. 

The natives of the opposite coast of India think 
the flesh of the rat, fed as it is on such delicate fare, 
very nice, and they come and work in the planta¬ 
tions on purpose to get as many of them as they 
can. They fry them in oil, and make a dish of them 
with hot spices and call it “currie.” 

The boys were sorry when Aunt Martha came to 
the end of her “story of the coffee,” and wanted to 
know a great many things about the brave man who 
went without drinking, in order to water the plants, 
and carry them safely to their journey’s end. 


THE COFFEE 


59 



In Ceylon there is a kind of rat that feeds on the berries. 

Aunt Martha could not answer all their ques¬ 
tions, for she was tired of talking, and wanted her 
tea. But she made a promise that the next time she 
went to the city, if Charley and Richard were there, 
she would take them into a coffee house and give 
them each a cup. 

Charley said it was a long time to wait for that 
treat; but if their aunt would let them, they should 
like to get up a little sooner each morning, and grind 
the coffee for breakfast. And then they remembered 
old Sally’s ignorance, and how they must tell her 
where the coffee came from, and all about it. 

When old Sally brought in the tea, she set a dish 
of new-laid eggs upon the table, and Aunt Martha 


60 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


gave one to each of her guests. Charley was talk¬ 
ing away, and not thinking of what he was doing, 
so he upset the salt-cellar, and spilt all the salt on 
the tablecloth. Aunt Martha asked him if he knew 
where salt came from. He answered very quickly, 
“From the shop.’’ But then Richard wanted to know 
where the shopman got it from. 

Instead of telling them. Aunt Martha said it was 
well for Charley that he did not live in olden times, 
when salt was very scarce, or he would have gotten 
into disgrace for wasting it. For in those days it 
was dear, and people took much more care of it than 
they do now. One large salt-cellar used to be set in 
the middle of the dinner-table, and everybody helped 
themselves to a little. It was the custom for the 
master and mistress to sit above the salt-cellar, and 
all the servants to take their places below it. 

Yes, indeed, he would have gotten into trouble 
then, if he had spilt the salt. And Aunt Martha 
promised that tomorrow night she should tell them 
—“The Story of the Salt.” 


The Story of 
the Salt 


HERE IS something on the 
lower shelf of the corner cup¬ 
board, that is of more import¬ 
ance than many of its neigh¬ 
bors. 

You might contrive to live 
without either tea or coffee, as 
people were obliged to do in years gone by, when 
they drank stout ale for breakfast, and had dinner 
at twelve o’clock. But what would you do without 
salt? What would become of your nice relishing 
dishes, if salt did not season them? They would 
taste no better than white of egg. 

Nay, you would not have those rosy cheeks, nor 
be able to scamper about from morning till night 
as you do now. You would be pale and sickly; and 
I hardly think you could live, without the little 
harmless doses of salt you are always taking in some 
form or other. 



61 









62 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


In some parts of the world, cattle and deer come 
a long way to get a taste of salt. The salt is in 
some well or spring that bubbles up among the 
grass; and the water leaves it behind like a crust 
on the stones that may chance to be lying about; 
and the grass all round tastes very much of salt. 

The place is called a “salt-lick,” because the 
cattle keep licking at the stones. They are sure to 
find their way to the salt-lick, even though they live 
miles away. And they keep cropping the grass, and 
licking the salt, till they have had enough, and then 
they go home again. They make a path on the 
grass with their hoofs, and tread it down. The 
hunter knows what the path means the moment he 
sees it, and he lies in wait with his gun. The poor 
deer is sure to come before long, or the buffalo with 
his great horns, and then the hunter shoots at them. 

The man who owns the salt-lick very often 
begins to bore down into the ground. He thinks 
he may find a salt-mine, or, at least, a way under¬ 
ground that leads to one, and then he can get quite 
rich and become a person of importance. 

A man once came to a salt-lick and tasted the 
water. He found it was all right, and that when he 
boiled some in a kettle and let it get cold there was 
a crust of salt at the bottom. He was highly de¬ 
lighted, and bought the land, and set people on to 
bore. But, alas! there was no salt to be found any- 



The place is called a ^'salt-lick” 
63 


_ 























64 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


where. A cunning hunter had put salt into the 
spring, and sprinkled it on the grass, to entice the 
deer, and make them believe the place was a salt¬ 
lick. And so the poor man had spent his money for 
nothing! 

In some places the salt-licks are very far apart, 
and the cattle can hardly ever get to them. The 
cattle have plenty of food, and large rich pastures 
to browse in: but they long for a bit of salt, and 
there is none for them. Once a fortnight their 
master lets them come home to the farm, and gives 
each of them a bit of salt. The cows and horses 
know the right day as well as can be, and they set 
off at full gallop to the farm. The farmer is quite 
ready for them; and when they have had their salt 
they trot back again to the fields, as contented as 
possible. 

In Norway, when the farmer’s wife goes out 
with her maidens to collect her cows and have 
them milked, she takes a bowl of salt in her hand. 
The moment the cows see it, they come running up 
from all parts of the field, as if asking for some. 
Their mistress gives each of them a large spoonful, 
and expects them to be satisfied. But sometimes a 
cow is greedy, and wants more, and pushes his 
nose into the bowl until it becomes quite trouble¬ 
some; and then the mistress gives it a box on the 


THE SALT 


65 



ears with the wooden spoon, to teach it better man¬ 
ners. 

There is a desert in Africa where the ground 
under foot is not sand but salt. It is called the 
“Salt Desert;” and the salt sparkles in the sun with 
such a crystal whiteness that people who travel 
upon it are almost blinded. Because salt is so useful 
and so necessary it is found in great abimdance. 
The great wide sea could not keep sweet and fresh 
without salt. People put the sea-water in large 
shallow pans, and let the sun dry it up. The salt 
found at the bottom is called “bay salt,” and is very 
bitter. And sometimes it is mixed with other things, 
—such as a relation called Epsom salts, that has 
a disagreeable taste, and is used as a medicine. 

But the salt makes its way from the sea by all 
kinds of secret paths under the ground, and then it 


66 


AVNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


is found in places called mines, and is named “rock 
salt.” The mine is like a great deep cavern, and 
has tall pillars of salt to hold up the roof; and the 
roof, and the walls, and the pillars glitter as though 
they were covered with precious stones. 

When any person of consequence comes to visit 
the mine, the men who are at work make a great 
illumination. They stick torches here and there as 
thickly as they can, and then light them up, so that 
the place looks like a fairy palace. 

The mine I am speaking of is near the town of 
Cracow in Poland, and it is not very pleasant to 
be let down. The person is let down in a hammock 
by means of a rope; and he goes down, down, a 
very long way. When he stops, he is not at his 
journey’c end; for he has to get out of his hammock, 
and go along a pathway that descends lower and 
lower, till it reaches the mine. 

The pathway is sometimes cut into steps, like a 
great wide staircase and glitters with the light of 
the torches that the miners carry in their hands. And 
the road leads through a great chamber or room 
where a thousand people might dine. 

When the traveller reaches the mine he finds 
himself in a country under ground, such as perhaps 
he had no idea of before. 

There is neither sun nor sky. But there are 
cross-roads, with horses and carriages going along 


THE SALT 


67 


them. And there are crowds o£ men, women, and 
children, who live always in the mine. Some of 
the children have lived there all their lives, and have 
never seen the daylight. 

Most of the horses, when once taken down, do 
not come up again. There are numbers of caverns, 
little and big, and some of them are made into 
stables, and the horses are kept there. The roofs 
of the caverns are supported on pillars of salt, and 
roads branch from them in all directions. They 
reach so far, and wind about so much, that a man 
may easily get lost. If his torch happens to go out, 
he wanders about until his strength is quite gone; 
and if nobody finds him, he dies. 

I have read of a salt-mine—also in Poland—in 
which there is a pretty chapel cut out of the salt, 
and called the “Chapel of St. Anthony.” 

There are some grand salt-mines in England and 
in the United States. There are some at a place 
called Nantwich, in Cheshire; and people are let 
down in a great tub. When they reach the bottom 
of the mine, there is the same glittering light from 
the torches. The torches are what the miners have 
to see by. 

Aunt Martha concluded by remarking how much 
pleasanter it is to live above ground, and see the 
cheerful light of the sun, and to walk in the green 


68 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


fields, and to breathe the fresh air. Did not the 
boys think so? 

Charley said he did; but if ever he went down 
into a mine he should take a box of matches with 
him. He thought then if his torch went out, he 
should stand quite still and light it again. 

Aunt Martha agreed with him that would be the 
best plan. 

Charley wondered at the cattle liking salt so 
much. He could understand them liking sugar, but 
salt was not nice at all—and he put a little into the 
palm of the hand to taste. It was very well with 
egg or potatoes, but he should not like to lick it 
as the cattle did. 

Richard said the coachman had told him that 
salt was very good for horses, and made their coats 
finer; and that when they could not get it they 
were neither so well nor so handsome. 

Aunt Martha said that was quite true. 

But at this moment their attention was diverted 
by Sally’s placing on the table a large plum-cake. 
Now the boys had seen this cake being made, and 
had asked old Sally ever so many questions about 
the currants she was putting into it. Did they grow 
on trees? Did they come from the same country 
as the coffee? 

So the arrival of the cake brought the currants 
to mind, and both the boys began to question their 





People are let down in a great tub. 


/ 


69 










70 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


aunt about them. But Aunt Martha said it was 
tea-time now, and she could not answer any ques¬ 
tions. She hoped they would find the cake all the 
nicer for the currants that were in it, as she believed 
old Sally had put them in on purpose for them. 
At which Charley begged Aunt Martha, if she was 
rested by tomorrow night, to tell them—“The Story 
of the Currants.” 






The Stor3p of 
the Currants 


EOPLE use quite a wrong word 
when they talk about currants, 
meaning the currants we buy at 
the grocer’s shop, and which are 
not in the least degree related 
to the red and white bunches 
that hang in summer from the 
bushes in the garden. 

The mistake arose from the 
name of one of the places where the currants grow, 
which is called “Corinth.” People chose to speak 
of them as “Corinths,” and in time the word became 
changed into currants. Currants, indeed! Why, they 
belong to the elegant family of grapes, that hang 
in white and purple clusters in the vineyards abroad. 
They too grow upon a vine, and are nothing in the 
world but grapes! 

The little bush-like vine, on which the currant 
grows, requires a great deal of care. It has to be 
supported on sticks, and to have the earth loosened 



71 





72 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


every now and then about the roots. It is very 
subject to blight; and if the weather is too wet, is 
apt to be spoiled and even killed. At all times it 
is very slow in bringing forth its fruit, and the little 
grapes do not appear until the tree is six years old. 

It grows in some sunny islands near Greece, in 
a sea called the Ionian Sea. If ever you read the 
history of Greece, you will find a great deal about 
the Ionian Islands. 

There are seven of them, and one of them is 
called Zante. It has high cliffs, and a pier where 
the people land from ships. All kinds of persons 
land from the boats, and it is a pretty sight to watch 
their different costumes and faces. 

The island is only sixty miles round, and there 
is a great plain stretching over nearly all of it, and 
some hills in the distance. There are pretty villages, 
and houses and gardens, and groves of oranges 
and lemons; and to stand on the hills and look over 
the plain, you would think it was one great vineyard. 

About the end of August, the grapes of the 
little bushy vines are ready to gather and a great 
many men, women, and children are sent into the 
vineyards to gather them. 

They pick off the little grapes, and lay them 
upon the stone floor of a room or shed, that has no 
roof, and is open to the sky. The sun pours down 
his beams upon them, and very soon dries them. 


THE CURRANTS 


73 



If the weather keeps fine all is well. But now and 
then there comes a great thunderstorm, and the 
rain pours in torrents. Then the currants begin 
to ferment, and are quite spoiled. So the owner 
throws them to the horses, and cows, and sheep, 
who eat them up very soon. 

If the weather is fine, the currants get quite 
dry, and then they are taken away to a kind of 
warehouse, and poured through a hole in the roof 
until the warehouse is quite full. This makes them 
cake together, as you see when you open a packet 
of them. 

In the warehouse they cake so much, that men 
have to dig them out with sharp instruments, when 
the time is come for putting them into barrels. Then 







74 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


a man used to get into the barrels, without shoes or 
stockings, and trample them down as they were 
poured in. And there were barrels enough to fill 
five or six ships. 

I should tell you that when the currants are 
brought to the warehouse, the keeper of the place 
has a paper given to him, saying how many of 
them there are. And in olden days a great fuss was 
made about the currants. The islands belonged to 
the city of Venice, which was then in its glory. 
And five grave senators, dressed in their robes, used 
to meet to decide what the price of the currants 
was to be. And no one might buy them without 
asking leave of the Government. 

When the English came into power, they did 
rather a foolish thing. They laid a heavy tax on the 
currants, so that to eat them in puddings was like 
eating money. But very few people would buy them, 
and the little vines were neglected and left to die. 
The owners of them lost all their money, and had 
to borrow of the Jews. Indeed, there was so much 
grumbling, and so many complaints made that the 
tax had to be altered, and then the price of currants 
came down. 

So many ship-loads of currants came to England, 
that the people of Zante used to wonder what we 
did with them all. They were quite certain that we 
used them in dyeing cloth. 


THE CURRANTS 


75 


When Charley heard that currants were really 
grapes, he jumped up to pick one off the dish and 
put it into water. There it lay and swelled itself 
out till he could see quite plainly that it was a 
small round grape. 

He said the word Corinth was not much like the 
word currant. And he did not like the idea of the 
currants being trodden down in the barrels by men 
with naked feet. Richard said currants were dirty 
things, and he liked raisins better. Were they grapes 
too? Aunt Martha told them they were a larger 
kind of grape, which came from Spain. 

As the atlas was on the table, they might as well 
show her where Spain was. 

She had a few raisins in her corner cupboard, 
and if Charley liked to put one in water, he would 
see what a large grape it was. 

Aunt Martha was about to rise and reach for 
the raisins, when she dropped her needle. For after 
tea she had taken it up to mend a hole in Richard’s 
glove. Charley soon found the needle, but when he 
had picked it up he began to look at it. Where did 
needles come from? Who made them? And how 
did they manage to make that hole for the eye? 

Aunt Martha had found the raisins, and would 
only talk about them now. One thing, she said, was 
enough at once. To-morrow night she would 
answer his questions. 


The Storj^ of 
the Flaoc 



HEN Aunt Martha had fin¬ 
ished her story about cur¬ 
rants, she told the boys that 
after breakfast the next 
morning she would look 
through the cupboard and see 
what else there was there that might be of interest 
to them. The boys were very tired after a long 
stroll through the woods that afternoon, and they 
went to bed very early. 

The next morning they were up bright and 
early, and before Aunt Martha had time to finish 
her work in the garden or old Sally to clear the 
breakfast-table, Charley and Richard had gone to 
the cupboard to see what they could find. Just then 
they were startled by hearing Aunt Martha calling 
for them to come into the garden. Out they ran, 


76 







THE FLAX 


77 


never stopping to cover up the boxes and jars they 
had opened to see what was in them. They found 
Aunt Martha with a small armful of tall grass or 
weeds, as the boys called it, sitting on an old rustic 
bench she had put in the garden last year. 

The boys took their accustomed places beside 
Aunt Martha wondering what kind of a story they 
would hear about weeds. Aunt Martha began by 
telling them that it was not a weed, but flax; that 
it grew wherever wheat, corn, oats, and rye grew. 
For thousands of years that little plant has been 
grown in Egypt and in other parts of the Eastern 
world. It was carried to Europe by the Romans, 
and as early as the time of Caesar it was known in 
England. It may have been brought to England by 
Caesar, but it was not until 1629 that it was intro¬ 
duced into England. 

The stalks are about two feet tall. That is about 
as tall as they ever grow. Even in very rich soil, as 
this garden is, flax seldom, if ever, attains a height 
exceeding three feet. 

The leaves are small and pointed, and the flowers 
are blue with scalloped edges. The stems are hollow 
and seem to be covered with fibrous material. The 
flowers grow in clusters at the top of the stems, 
and when they fall off are succeeded in turn by 
round seed-vessels the size of a pea, and very much 
like the morning-glory. 


78 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


I am sorry, said Aunt Martha, that I have not 
a stalk just ripening, so that I could show you how 
the plant and seed look when ready to be harvested. 

Flax grows best on a rich, moist soil, and when 
the season is very dry the small farmers in Egypt 
and other hot countries are compelled to water the 
plants by a system of irrigation. That is, they 
store up all the water they can when it rains, and 
let it out to flow over the field in very dry weather. 

The seed is sown early in the spring; that is, 
about the same time that we usually sow oats. The 
crop is gathered in July and August, for it takes 
longer to mature and ripen than either oats or 
wheat. Sometimes two crops are gathered from the 
same field; this can be done only by a very early 
planting. When the plant is thoroughly ripe, the 
leaves drop off and the stalks turn yellow, and the 
field has almost the appearance of a wheat-field at 
harvest time. 

If the crop is grown for the fiber, that is for the 
stalk and not the seed, the plant is pulled up by the 
roots when the seeds begin to ripen. If flax is 
raised for the seed, then it is pulled up when the 
stem is growing and the leaves begin to fall. 

Just here Aunt Martha told the boys that they 
would go into the house and get some flax seed, and 
she would show them just how and where they 
grow on the stalk. 


THE FLAX 


79 



Spinning was done by hand. 

After explaining the many uses to which flax 
seed is put, such as poultices, making of linseed oil, 
cake, etc.. Aunt Martha said that Linum, from 
which we get the word linen, is only another word 
for flax. The stalks are steeped in water until 
fermentation sets in, so that the fibers of the outside 
covering, or bark, can be separated. After being 
dried in the sun, any woody portion of the plant 
which may adhere to the fibers is removed by an in¬ 
strument called a brake. 

To prepare the fiber for the spinning-wheel, the 
fibers must be laid out straight. This is done with 
a hatchel or a swingle, a contrivance resembling a 












80 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


brush with sharp-pointed needles. The process is 
called heckling, and the flax is drawn over these 
points, and the long flbers become straight. The 
short, uneven ones are left and make a substance 
called tow, used in calking vessels to prevent their 
leaking. 

The processes required to convert these fibers into 
cloth are the same as are necessary in the manufac¬ 
ture of wool and cotton. The spinning and weaving 
is now done entirely by machinery, where formerly 
it was done by hand. Flax fibers are of a brownish 
color and have to be bleached before the beautiful 
white color of linen can be obtained. The quickest 
way to accomplish this is to use chloride of lime. 

Various qualities of linen are manufactured, 
which are used for making sheets, pillow-cases, 
handkerchiefs, and different articles of wearing ap¬ 
parel. With linen thread, which is made by spin¬ 
ning the fiber, we make lace and fancy edgings, 
tidies, etc. A rich variety of linen cloth, woven with 
figures, is called damask. Irish linen is so called 
because this fine quality is manufactured very exten¬ 
sively in Belfast and other Irish cities. It is used 
for table cloths, napkins, towels, etc. Laun is a very 
fine material; it was first made in France, but now 
it is made in every part of the civilized world where 
there are any manufacturies. 

The industry is one of the oldest in the world. 


THE FLAX 


81 



Linen was used by the Egyptians for embalming. 

Four thousand years ago the finest quality of linen 
was used by the Egyptians for embalming. The 
earliest records in Egypt and India show its exten¬ 
sive use, and under Greek and Roman civilization 
its manufacture reached as high a state of perfection 
as we have it to-day. 

We see, then, how little progress after all we 
have made in some things. In the matter of steam 
and electricity we are far in advance of the ancients, 
but in the manufacture of glass, steel, bronze, iron. 


















82 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


gold and silver ornaments and linens we have made 
very little advancement in two thousand years. 

Charley and Richard were delighted with the 
story of the flax, for they never dreamed that this 
little plant was so valuable. Richard said he knew 
the mummies were wrapped in cloth bandages so as 
to preserve them for ages, but he did not know of 
what this cloth was made. He asked Aunt Martha 
to let some of the little plants grow in the garden 
till they were yellow and the seeds were ripe, and 
they would see if they could not make some cloth 
too; but Aunt Martha told them that it was a long 
and quite difficult process to convert the stalks into 
woven linen, but that when they got older she 
would take them to one of the big mills near Boston 
where some very excellent linens are made. 

Just then old Sally entered the room with a large 
sponge in her hand, which she used to wipe off the 
windows. The boys were continually on the outlook 
for material for stories, and as Aunt Martha was 
very careful to select only such articles as she was 
perfectly familiar with she was very glad when 
Charley asked her to tell them about the sponge, 
what it was, and where it came from. So Aunt 
Martha told Sally to hand her the sponge so that 
she could explain it more fully. 


The Story of 
the Sponge 

UNT MARTHA began by having 
Charley get her a pan of water 
which she placed on the table 
by the large sponge old Sally 
had given her. She first ex¬ 
plained that the sponge was for 
many years supposed to be a 
vegetable or plant, and that it 
grew in salt water and only on 
large rocks. Instead of a plant we now know it to 
be an animal, and of the very lowest of all forms. 
Said Aunt Martha: 

You see how soft and elastic it is, and by dipping 
it in the water it absorbs, or takes up about all there 
is in the pan. Now by pressing it between the hands 
all of the water is returned to the pan, and the 
sponge is almost as yellow as it was when perfectly 
dry. By holding it up to the light, you see that it 
consists of a horny framework made up of an in¬ 
numerable number of small tubes, branching out 



83 









84 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


from larger ones which grow still larger near the 
center of the sponge. 

These tubes all have openings at the surface and 
are filled throughout with a jelly-like, fleshy sub¬ 
stance. They are called pores, and at the end of the 
smaller openings the sponge takes in water, which 
passes through the tubes and finally out again 
through the openings of the larger tubes. It is in 
this way that the animal, (for such it is) takes in 
food. It does not require much to maintain life, 
for it never leaves the rock it once forms on, but 
remains there until it dies and falls off, or is eaten 
by the fish, or washed off by the action of the deep 
waves. 

The sponge does not live very far under the sur¬ 
face, for the water would be too heavy at a greater 
depth than thirty or forty feet. While we get most 
of our sponges from the Mediterranean Seas and 
along the rocky coasts of Greece and the Ionian 
Islands, still they are formed in all parts of the 
world—in the hottest countries and in the coldest; 
but the largest and roughest ones come from the 
Bahamas and other islands in the West Indies. 

Sponges are of all shapes, sizes, and colors; some 
are spherical (that is, round), others arc long and 
slender. They vary in size from a piece no larger 
than a pin head to masses clustered together that 
could not be gotten into this room. In the water the 



The sponge never leaves the rock it once forms on. 


85 
































86 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


sponge is almost black, because it contains that jelly- 
like substance which is really the animal, and the 
water it contains makes it look black. The sponge 
I have in my hand is only the skeleton; the animal 
died and was washed out of its house or skeleton by 
the men who dive down under the sea for it. 

The people who gather these sponges live in little 
villages near the sea. Boys no older than you, begin 
by diving near shore and as they get older they go 
out in boats. The water is not cold where we get 
most of our sponges, and the men and boys dive 
down to great depths and get them. Sometimes they 
put on waterproof rubber suits with an air-pipe that 
leads to the air above and through which they can 
breathe; but in olden times the men were so accus¬ 
tomed to this work that they could remain under 
water from two to four minutes without any air 
whatever. 

Charley and Richard thought they would like to 
try staying under the water four minutes, but Aunt 
Martha told them to hold their nose tight, take a 
long breath and then shut their mouth tight, and she 
would see how long they could hold their breath. 
It was not difficult to guess the result. Charley held 
his breath about half a minute, and Richard a little 
longer than Charley. They said they were going to 
keep on practicing until they went swimming when 


THE SPONGE 


87 



Men and boys dive down to great depths and get them. 


they knew they would be able to stay under water a 
minute or more. 

“I don’t believe you will ever be able to stay 
under water as long as the boys who live by the sea 
and gather sponges almost all the year,” said Aunt 
Martha, “for they go down under the water hun¬ 
dreds of times a day from the time they are old 
enough to work until they are old men, but it will 
not hurt you to try it, for it will strengthen your 
lungs.” 

Aunt Martha would have ended her story here 
and gone out into the garden, but Charley remem¬ 
bered that there were several things in the cupboard 














88 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


that Aunt Martha had not told them about, and they 
were very anxious to know more about the things 
that are on the table and how and where we get 
them. Charley ran out into the kitchen where the 
cupboard stood and got the little round box that 
Aunt Martha knew contained the ground pepper. 
She told Sally to bring her the large box containing 
the unground spice, and after selecting the package 
containing the whole pepper, she began her story of 
the pepper which she said would be the last until 
after supper as she had some work to do in the 
garden. 




The Story of 
the Pepper 


OW, said Aunt Martha, you must 
first understand the difference 
between the several kinds of pep¬ 
pers. Out in the garden I have 
a bed of large green peppers 
called the Bell pepper, and over 
by the apple tree are some other 
pepper plants, which when the 
fruit is ripe will be bright red. 
These are red peppers. Now the pepper I have here 
is not like either of these; it is black, you see, and 
these that are unground are about the size of a 
pea and all shriveled up. This kind of pepper is 
called a spice and comes from very hot countries. 

The plant, or bush from which this little seed is 
gathered grows wild in China and India, and while 
it is a native of the East Indies, it is cultivated in all 
tropical countries, principally in South America, 
Java, Sumatra, Ceylon and other islands of the 
Indian Ocean. Of all the spices, pepper is by far 



89 









90 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


the most universally grown; it is used by the people 
of all nations in cooking, in seasoning, and in pick- 
ling. It is also a grand medicine, being very effective 
in the cure of ringworm, and it makes an excellent 
ointment. 

As far back as we have any records of mankind 
pepper has been used as a medicine; but only within 
the past two or three hundred years could any but 
the very wealthiest afford to buy or use it. A gift 
of a few pounds of pepper was considered a very 
generous offering a century or two ago. 

Pepper grows on a creeping shrub or vine and 
has ivy-shaped leaves and thick, spongy stems. The 
size of the fruit is increased by frequent cutting, or 
trimming, very much as we do our grape-vines. The 
vine grows to the height of twelve feet, usually 
being trained on poles or up date or palm trees, 
because of the absence of lower limbs. 

The plant begins to bear fruit the third year, 
though it takes five years before it is in full bearing! 
The flowers are small and white and the fruit round 
and red when ripe, and as you see, about the size of 
a pea. Just before it is fully ripe it is gathered and 
dried in the sun, which gives it a dried and wrinkled 
appearance. If allowed to fully ripen on the plant it 
loses much of its strength. The berries are produced 
in clusters very much like our grapes, currants or 
gooseberries. At first they are green, then red when 


THE PEPPER 

ripe, but black when ready for the 
market. 

Black and white pepper, con¬ 
tinued Aunt Martha, are taken 
from the same vine or shrub. The 
white pepper is stripped of its 
covering while the black pepper 
is the entire fruit. In this ground 
pepper you see particles of gray 
mixed with the black. That is the 
seed, which, if separated before 
grinding, makes the white 
pepper, a much more valuable, 
stronger, and better spice than 
the black, or the outside covering 
ground separately. 

In addition to the black and white pepper there is 
also the long and cayenne pepper. The long is very 
much like the clove in appearance. But little of it 
reaches America, for the round berry is preferred. I 
forgot to say, said Aunt Martha, that the way the 
white is separated from the black is to steep the 
berry in salt water for several days, then the two 
parts easily become separated. 

Cayenne pepper comes mostly from South Amer¬ 
ica, where it grows wild. It is grown very exten¬ 
sively in India, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and 
in some parts of both the temperate zones. The ripe 









92 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


fruit is dried, ground, and then mixed with wheat or 
buckwheat flour. It is occasionally adulterated with 
red-lead, vermillion, ochre, ground rice and tumeric. 
Cayenne pepper is used principally in sauces, though 
the fruit is eaten by the natives of the warmer 
climates. The inhabitants of all warm climates eat 
largely of all kinds of spices, and this may account 
for the temper, quick to anger, of the people of all 
southern countries—most notably the Spanish speak¬ 
ing races. 

When Aunt Martha finished her story of the pep¬ 
per, old Sally came in to wipe off the windows. Now 
Richard had often thought he would ask Aunt 
Martha to tell them about glass. He knew that it 
was made of sand and water, but did not see how 
window panes could be made so clear and smooth 
by simply mixing sand and water together and 
putting it in the fire to boil. Aunt Martha told the 
boys that she would tell them about glass before 
dinner. 






The Storj^ of 
the Glass 


UST ONE more story before din¬ 
ner, said Aunt Martha, and now 
if Charley and Richard will go 
out and get all the old glass they 
can find—bottles, lamp chimneys, 
tumblers, and broken window 
panes—I will tell you how each 
is made and how the making of 
glass was discovered. 

The boys were not long in getting a panful of 
glass out in the ash barrel and in the garden where 
Aunt Martha kept old window panes to protect her 
young plants from the frost early in the spring. 

The discovery of the process of making glass 
will ever remain a mystery, said Aunt Martha. It 
has been so long in use that we are tempted to 
believe that it was one of the first discoveries 
ever made by man. One story of its discovery, 
which is very generally believed, is that some pirates 
who had landed somewhere on the southern shore 



93 










94 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


of the Mediterranean, probably in Egypt, more than 
five thousand years ago, built a large fire of sea¬ 
weed and drift-wood, intending to cook their food, 
after the fire had gone out they found that the sand 
where the fire had been had become very hard and 
brittle. Breaking off large pieces they found them 
transparent, but full of bubbles and little pebbles. 
The alkali in the sea-weed and the intense heat 
which had been kept up for several days had con¬ 
verted the shore-sand into glass, though of a very 
poor quality. Some merchants happening that way 
not long afterward were told of this discovery, and 
when they returned to their homes in Egypt, Phoeni¬ 
cia, Arabia, Syria, or probably at Thebes or Baby¬ 
lon or Damascus, for we cannot tell which of these 
countries was the earliest home of man, they experi¬ 
mented until they were quite proficient in the art 
of making glass. 

From this accidental discovery fifty or sixty cen¬ 
turies ago, have come the beautiful things we now 
have in glassware. The ancients made a flexible, 
transparent glass which we cannot make to-day, and 
even the use of which we would be at a loss to know 
should we chance to discover the process of making 
it. Here you see are some ornamental flowers and 
a necktie bought at the World’s Fair in Chicago that 
are made of glass, but they are not transparent and 
contain materials that permit bending, without in- 



Some pirates built a large fire of seaweed and drift-wood. 
95 






















96 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


jury to the outside coating of glass. 

Now, as you see by this lot of broken glass, there 
are many varieties, both in color and design. All 
glass is made of sand and water with a chemical 
composition composed of potassium or sodium, with 
silicates of lime, lead, aluminum and others. The 
mixture, said Aunt Martha, must be so proportioned 
that there is not sufficient alkaline silicate present to 
render the product attackable by water or acids. It 
is put into a furnace for several days, or until it is 
reduced to a soft, sticky mass, by an intense heat. 
To make bottles, window panes, plate glass, crown 
glass, flint glass, or any desired kind or quality, no 
other ingredients are used, but in some, like crown 
or optical glass one or more silicate is left out, for 
one acid gives a greenish tint, another a yellow, and 
so on, and optical glass must be absolutely free of 
color. 

Bottles are usually blown, though many are 
moulded, as are also tumblers, pitchers, bowls, etc. 
It would take a whole day to tell how each object of 
glassware is made and the purpose of each. We 
have several large plate glass factories in the United 
States, one of the largest being at Crystal City, 
Missouri, about thirty miles south of St. Louis on 
the Mississippi river. Here they make only plate 
glass used in windows of large office buildings and 
stores. At Alton, Ill., East St. Louis, and many 


THE GLASS 


97 



Bottles are usually hleywn. 


Other places in the west, are large bottle factories 
where skilled workmen make those handsome bottles 
used by druggists, and also the common beer and 
soda bottles. Most of the largest breweries and 
manufacturers of inks and other liquid products 
make their own bottles in the same town in which 
their goods are manufactured. 

Plate glass is first blown into large cylinders, 
which, after the ends are removed, are split down 
their length by a diamond, and afterwards flattened 
out in a kiln. The men have to be very careful in 
handling the large sheets of glass, for many have 
been killed by the breaking of glass in carrying it 
from the tables to the polishing room. The smooth 
surface is secured by a long process of rubbing with 






98 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


pumice, rotten stone and putty powder, very much 
the same way in which men polish granite and 
marble for monuments and buildings. 

In coloring glass red, gold and copper is used; 
cobalt for blue; silver or iron for yellow; chromium 
for green, etc. These substances are put in at the 
time that the sand, water and chemicals are, so that 
they get thoroughly mixed during the boiling process. 
The plate glass intended for mirrors undergoes a 
process called annealing, similar to the process re¬ 
quired to make cast-iron. The glass, after being 
rolled smooth, is placed over an intense heat, but 
is not permitted to become soft; it is then removed 
and allowed to cool gradually. In order to render 
the glass brittle and free from bubbles the process 
of annealing is repeated many times. When quite 
cool, quicksilver is poured over one side of the glass, 
and after thoroughly drying we have the finished 
mirror you see over on the wall. 

Dinner had just been announced by old Sally, and 
so Aunt Martha brought her story about glass to 
an end, promising to give them one or two more 
stories after dinner. 


The Story of 
the Cork 


UNT MARTHA did not intend 
to spend the entire afternoon 
with the boys, for she had work 
to do in the garden, but just as 
they were finishing dinner it 
began to rain and then Aunt 
Martha knew that she might just 
as well prepare for a whole after¬ 
noon to be spent in story telling. 
Without waiting for the boys to ask her for a story, 
she went to the cupboard to see what had not 
already been talked about. She was surprised to 
find how many things there yet remained. She had 
told Charley and Richard all she knew about Tea, 
Sugar, Coffee, Salt, Currants, Flax, Sponge, Pepper, 
and Glass, but there were so many more things in 
this wonderful cupboard that she could talk and 
talk and talk for a week and then not exhaust the 
subjects yet to be found hidden away in this useful 
article of furniture. 

There was Cork and Chocolate, Cloves, Feathers, 
Honey, Rice, Cheese, Cinnamon, Ivory, and a dozen 



99 







100 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


Other things that she would like to talk about if 
these boys could remain another week. So taking 
two or three corks she called the boys into her large 
sitting room and told them she would tell them 
about Cork, what it is and how it is obtained. 

Cork, like pepper, tea, and the sponge, said Aunt 
Martha, grows only in warm climates. It is the 
outer bark of the cork-tree that we use, and is 
extensively raised in South America, Italy, Asia, 
Africa and most of the islands of the Southern Paci¬ 
fic. The tree often lives to be from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred years old, and has very 
much the appearance of our large white oak or black 
gum trees. 

The bark is stripped from the tree just as we 
gather slippery elm—by cutting around the tree 
and peeling off the outer bark, taking care not to 
injure the second bark or wood. The next year new 
bark forms and the tree appears as it did before the 
bark was taken off. The tree is not injured in the 
least, in fact it sheds its bark every few years very 
much like some species of the sycamore, only the 
bark is from two to three inches thick, while that 
of the sycamore is scaly. The process is repeated 
only about every eight years and with each opera¬ 
tion the bark improves in quality. The best time to 
gather the bark is in July and August, for it is neces¬ 
sary for the wound to heal before the sap comes 


THE CORK 


101 


down, and then, too, it must be thoroughly dry 
before it is ready for the market. 

After the outer surface has been scraped and 
cleaned, so as to remove every particle of rough 
matter, the pieces are flattened by heating them, 
and at the same time submitting them to great pres¬ 
sure on the flat surface of an oven. In the heating 
operation the surface is charred, thereby closing the 
pores, and what is termed “nerve” is given to the 
material. In this state the cork is ready for manu¬ 
facture or for exportation. It is shipped in crates 
and in bundles, and late in the fall many vessels 
leave the South American ports bound for the 
United States or Europe with no other cargo than 
cork. The decks are piled with great bundles of 
this light material and it is necessary to ballast the 
ship with rock, though sometimes many barrels of 
sugar and sorghum are used in place of rock. The 
ballast then more than pays the cost of transporta¬ 
tion of this cork. 

Cork is very light, and, as you see, said Aunt 
Martha, floats, but it possesses a combination of 
properties which peculiarly fits it for many and 
diverse uses, and for some of which, it alone is found 
applicable. The chief purpose for which it is used 
is for forming buoys and stoppers for bottles, casks 
and other vessels intended to hold liquids. 

Its compress ability, elasticity and practical im- 


102 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


perviousness to both the air without and the liquid 
within, fit it so admirably for its purpose that the 
term cork is more often applied to the function than 
to the substance. We say, put a cork in that bottle, 
or, do you know where there is a cork; but how 
often do we see or hear a person ask for some cork? 

Large pieces of cork are used to put around 
bottles to prevent their breaking in shipment. Its 
lightness, combined with strength and durability, 
recommends it above all other substances for form¬ 
ing life buoys, belts and jackets, and in the construc¬ 
tion of apparatus for saving life at sea, or on the 
large rivers and lakes. It is used on handle bars of 
bicycles, artificial limbs, instruments and for hun¬ 
dreds of other purposes requiring light yet imper¬ 
vious material. 

Like glass and flax and practically all the other 
articles of commerce that are in daily use, the dis¬ 
covery and practical application of cork dates back 
to the earliest Greek and Roman civilizations. In 
the writings of Horace and many others, we read of 
its use in making stoppers for wine and other vessels 
intended for liquids. It was not until about the year 
1680 that cork came generally into use, and to-day 
there is no successful substitute for cork, as we 
commonly use the word, save rubber and glass, and 
both of these are used to a very limited extent and 


THE CORK 


103 





It is used for forming life buoys, belts and jackets. 


only in bottles containing most notably perfumes, 
acids and ammonia. 

Richard wanted to know why it was that the 
Greeks and Romans understood the use of cork, 
glass, flax, sponge and so many other useful articles, 
and yet all of these things had to be rediscovered 
within the last four or five hundred years. Aunt 
Martha would like to have explained to them the 
many causes that produced the “Dark Ages’’ when 
there was no learning, no invention, no discoveries, 
and the people even forgot the use of iron and brass. 






104 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


save in the most ordinary articles of necessity; but 
that was more than a story in itself; some time, she 
said, she would give them a brief history of the 
world, commencing with the Bible account of the 
Creation. They would then see why it was that the 
whole world slumbered in darkness until Columbus 
awoke the sluggards from their thousand year trance 








The Slor^r of 
the Chocolate (cocoa) 

HOCOLATE, said Aunt Martha, 
is only cocoa in its manufactured 
form. So in speaking of cocoa or 
chocolate you must understand 
that it is from a shrub or small 
tree that grows wild in all warm 
’ countries. It is very extensively 
cultivated for its fruit in Mexico, 
South America, Africa, the East 
and West Indies. The tree seldom exceeds eighteen 
or twenty feet in height, and has large oblong taper- 
pointed leaves, and clusters of flowers. Its fruit 
varies from six to ten inches in length and three to 
five inches in breadth, and like the leaves is also 
oblong, but blunt, and marked usually with ten 
elevated ribs running lengthwise. Each fruit or pod 
contains from fifty to a hundred seeds, and it is 
from these that the cocoa or chocolate is prepared. 

After the fruit is ripe, it is picked and the seeds 



105 




106 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


taken out, cleaned and spread in the sun to dry. 
When thoroughly dry they are roasted in large 
revolving metal cylinders, then bruised to loosen 
their skins. The skin resembles that of the peanut, 
and is removed by fanning, after which the bean is 
crushed and ground between heated rollers, which 
softens the oily matter, and reduces the bean to a 
paste. This is then mixed with variable amounts of 
sugar and starch to form the different kinds of cocoa, 
or sweetened and flavored with spices, vanilla or 
other extracts, after which it is made into little 
cakes such as we have here in this box. 

In its pure state a very little of it satisfies the 
appetite, but it is very nourishing. The Mexicans, 
for hundreds of years, have been accustomed to pre¬ 
pare a beverage from roasted and pounded cocoa 
dissolved in water and mixed with maize-meal and 
spices. This they call chocolate. Chocolate was 
introduced into Europe in 1530 by the Spaniards 
who first learned of its value as an article of com¬ 
merce during the conquest under Cortes. From 
Europe it found its way to the United States, or 
rather the colonies, about 1570. 

As an article of food cocoa is exceedingly valu¬ 
able, because of its large amount of nutritive matter; 
but as a refreshing beverage it is much inferior to 
either tea or coffee, owing to the large amount of 
fat (fifty per cent.) which it contains, and also to 



After the fruit is ripe, 


it is picked. 


107 







































































108 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


the fact that the whole of the substance is taken 
into the stomach, while with tea and coffee only an 
infusion is drank. 

I forgot to say, said Aunt Martha, that the tree 
begins to bear fruit the third year and is fully grown 
at its sixth year. It is short lived, as are most of 
the trees and shrubs in hot countries; the cocoa tree 
seldom lives more than forty or fifty years. The 
tree is extremely tender, and great care is taken of 
those in cultivation. In their wild state they thrive 
best in deep, dense forests where they are protected 
by the large date, palm, rubber and other trees com¬ 
mon to hot countries. When they are set out and 
cultivated in fields, it is necessary to alternate the 
plants with a row of the trees I have mentioned, or 
some foliage plant that grows to a greater height 
than the cocoa tree, say twenty to thirty feet. 

It is a very pretty sight to see a forest of cocoa 
trees in bloom, the flowers are a bright red and grow 
from all parts of the tree or shrub. One does not 
have to go thousands of miles to see almost every 
tropical plant growing. Every large city in America 
has one or more gardens where most of them are 
cultivated for the benefit of science or the public 
generally. 

The most notable garden in the United States 
is in St. Louis. At an expense of upwards of 
$2,500,000 Henry Shaw established Shaw’s Botanical 


THE CHOCOLATE 


109 


Garden in that city, which is open to the public two 
or three days a week. In this garden will be found 
all known vegetation, whether flowers, shrubs, or 
trees, brought from all parts of the world. Plants 
are blooming all the year round, and orange, lemon, 
banana, pineapple, citron, date, fig, olives, pepper, 
cocoa and a hundred other fruits can be seen form¬ 
ing or ripening every day in the year. 

Other cities than St. Louis have botanical gar¬ 
dens, or observatories. In some of the parks of Bos¬ 
ton, New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco, 
and New Orleans are to be found most of the plants 
that are to be found in St. Louis. When you have 
finished your studies under Dr. Birch I will ask your 
father to let you go on a visit to St. Louis, where 
you can spend as much time as you wish in studying 
the tropical fruits and plants in that beautiful garden^ 







The Stor)^ of 

the Rice 


^HE yellow corn that waves in the 
field is one of the most useful 
plants that grows. It feeds hun¬ 
dreds and thousands of persons, 
and has been called the “staff of 
life.’’ But rice feeds millions— 
nay, hundreds of millions! 

Just open the map of Asia and look at it. Do you 
see the great peninsula of Hindustan? and do you see 
China, and Japan, and the islands round about? And 
turn to another map, where the New World is spread 
out before you. There is a state called Carolina, where 
the rice grows and flourishes. Nay, in Europe itself, 
on the banks of the river Danube, it is not lacking. 
So far does its domain extend. 

And all the swarming hosts of China and of India 
feed on rice, and it is to them what bread is to us— 
the staff of life. 



no 











THE RICE 


111 


People in those hot countries do not care for beef 
or mutton. A little boiled rice, seasoned with pepper, 
makes them a good dinner. In America such is not 
the case. Rice is eaten, it is true, but rather smiled 
at for its simplicity. An American would look very 
blank if he had nothing set before him but a dish of 
rice. 

The plant that bears the rice wants a great deal 
of moisture. When it does rain in the tropics, it pours 
in torrents, and comes from the clouds like a sheet of 
water. The water cannot run away all at once, and in 
some places forms a great lake. This is just the place 
for the rice to grow; for it must be kept, till nearly 
ripe, with its head just above water. 

It is not very pleasant to work in the mud. But 
the farmer and the buffalo that draws the plough, 
have to do it. They wade about as best they can; and 
here and there a bird with long legs, called a heron, 
stands patiently waiting for a fish in the middle of 
a rice-field, as if he thought fishes must be there. 

And here and there is a little shed built on poles, 
with a man sitting inside it. A great many ropes are 
fastened to it, and spread over the field. A number of 
scarecrows are tied to the ropes, and the man in the 
shed makes them jump up and down. 

This is done to frighten away a flock of birds 
called “rice-birds,” that love to pick out the grain 


112 


AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD 


while it is soft and milky. When the odd-looking fig¬ 
ures, or scarecrows, begin to jump about, the birds 
that have been picking and eating, and doing all the 
mischief they can, rise in the air and fly away. But 
as soon as the scarecrows are at rest again, they come 
back, and go on feasting on the rice. 

In a month or two the flood is gone, and the field 
looks as if it were covered with a waving crop of bar¬ 
ley. Then comes the busy time of harvest; and the 
villagers all turn out to reap, sometimes up to their 
knees in mud. This muddy part of the business is not 
very healthy, and the people who work in the rice 
field often die of fever. 

When there is no flood likely to come upon the 
ground, the water is made to stand upon it from the 
same river. This process is called by the long name of 
“artificial irrigation.” 

We never need it in America, where the clouds 
keep us amply supplied; and we never meet with such 
a machine as a water-wheel, set up for the purpose of 
pumping water on the land. Nor are we obliged to 
coax our rivers and streams up-hill and then let them 
run down into the valleys. But all this is done in 
countries where it does not rain for months at a time. 

The Chinese farmer is very fond of making ter¬ 
races on the banks of a river, for his rice to grow, 
upon. He ploughs the land with the help of the buf- 



A number of scarecrows are tied to the ropes. 


113 










































































114 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


falo, for horses are not used as in America. Both 
man and buffalo wade in the mud, and seem quite 
contented. 

Then, when the land has been ploughed, the rice- 
plants are brought from a hot bed, and set in holes 
made on purpose. The holes are full of water, that 
has been pumped up from the river by the water¬ 
wheel. It is pumped up to the top terrace, and then 
runs down all over the rest. 

This pumping goes on until the rice-stalks begin 
to turn yellow. Then the Chinaman stops, for he 
knows the plants have had enough. 

When the crops are ripe, the terraces have a green 
and beautiful appearance, and look like gardens. 

Sometimes the little trickling rill is led many 
miles along the country to a rice-field that wants 
water, and no trouble is thought too great to ensure 
a plentiful crop. 

There is a kind of rice that does not require all 
this watering. It is called mountain-rice, and grows 
in the island of Sumatra, where it rains every few 
days. When the crop has been gathered in, the land 
is allowed to lie fallow for a time, and then it becomes 
covered with a great jungle-grass as much as twelve 
feet high. In this tall grass the tiger hides himself, 
or the rhinoceros comes to graze. 

But when the ground is wanted for another crop. 


THE RICE 


115 



In this tall grass the tiger hides himself. 


the tall grass has to be burned off. As soon as the fire 
is lighted, a loud, rustling noise is heard, and the 
great column of flame rises and sweeps along, till the 
whole ground is covered with a sheet of fire. 

If the traveler sees the column in the distance, he 
takes care to escape it if he can. But sometimes it is 
too quick in its march for him to get away, and then 
woe betide him! 

When Aunt Martha had finished her story, she 
got up, and opening her corner cupboard, reached 





116 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


down a jar of rice for the boys to look at. After that, 
she showed them a picture of the plant itself, as it 
looks when growing. It had three ears on the top of 
each stalk, and each ear had awns to it. 

Charley said it was almost like barley. 

Richard said he should like to see a Chinaman 
ploughing, with his buffaloes, in the mud. He had 
once seen a Chinese giant; he wore his hair in a long 
pigtail down his back. 

Charley asked what the ladies did to make their 
feet so small. 

Aunt Martha said, that when they were babies, 
their feet were fastened up in tight bandages, so that 
they could not grow. When Charley got home, he 
must ask his father to take him to the museum, and 
show him all the curious things that were there. 

The boys then began to talk about the rice-pud¬ 
dings they had at school. Charley said he should like 
them better, now he knew that so many people lived 
on rice, without any meat at all. 

Aunt Martha observed that everything in her 
corner cupboard had told them its story. The tea¬ 
cup, and the tea, and the sugar, and the coffee, and 
the rice, and the salt, and the currants. It was well 
they were going home so soon, for there would be no 
more tales to tell. Yes, she believed everything had 
told them its story. 


THE RICE 


117 


Charley said, might he see? And, before his aunt 
had time to reply, he had jumped on a chair, and was 
peering into her cupboard. What was that yellow jar 
hidden up so snug? What had that inside it? 

Aunt Martha said that indeed she had forgotten 
that; it was her honey-jar. If they liked, she would 
tell them a tale about Honey to finish with; it would 
be short and sweet. 






The Stor^? of 
the Hone]? 


m 

OST of the things in my corner 
cupboard have been made, or 
as it is called, manufactured, 
by man. And if he has not 
made them, he has at least 
prepared them for use. Even 
the tea and the coffee and the 
sugar have to pass through 
his hands before they come to the table. 

But I am now to tell you about something with 
which he has very little to do. He has neither made 
nor prepared it, and yet it is something we all like 
very much, and should be sorry to do without. 

The garden in summer-time is full of bright-col¬ 
ored flowers. The rose, and the honey-suckle, and the 
jessamine that climbs over the porch; and the white 
lily, and the pink, and the carnation. Now in the deep 
recess of the flower a sweet juice lies hidden. It is 
not honey, but it is the stuff out of which honey is 
made. 



118 







The garden in summer is full of flowers. 


119 
























120 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


A hundred little workmen are busy carrying away 
the juice—or, as it is called, the nectar—for the very 
purpose of making honey. You will guess that I mean 
the bees. But the bees are very knowing, and they do 
not take the nectar out of all the flowers; they skip 
over some, as if they did not like them. 

The bee is very intent on its work. It lives in the 
hive by the garden wall: though it has plenty of rela¬ 
tives who do not live in a hive, but make their nests 
out in the fields and woods; but they all carry on the 
same trade,—that of honey-making. 

No one can take any liberties with the bee, because 
it is armed with a sharp little sword called a sting; 
but it is worth while to stand a minute and see v/hat 
it is about. 

It has a tongue which is a great deal too long for 
its mouth, SO it lies folded down on its breast. When 
the bee settles on a flower, it thrusts its long tongue 
deep into the very bottom of it. The tongue is like 
a sponge, and sucks up all the nectar. The nectar 
passes along the body of the bee to a curious little bag 
called the honey-bag, which seems made on purpose 
to hold it. 

By-and-by the bee flies off home to the hive with 
its honey-bag quite full. The hive, as you know, has a 
great many cells in it made of wax, and they form 
what is called the honey-comb. 


THE HONEY 


121 



By-and-hy the bee flies off home to the hive. 


The bee pushes its head into a cell, and empties 
the honey by drops out of its honey-bag; and then 
comes another bee, and does the same till the cell is 
quite full; and then it is closed up with a waxen lid to 
keep out the air. 

I do not pretend to find out a secret known only 
to the bee, but it is quite certain that the nectar by 
some means or other has become changed into honey. 
It is full of little bright crystals like sugar, and has a 
pleasant smell, and a taste I need hardly describe. 

All over the country, in every garden, are the little 
honey-makers at work from morning till night. They 













122 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


are doing it to lay up a store of food for themselves. 
But honey is very nice, and the wax of which they 
make their comb is very useful; so the bee is robbed 
every year. 

It would not be easy to rob the hive in an open 
and straightforward way, because of the sharp little 
swords I have told you about. But the owner of the 
hive gets some round white balls that are found in the 
fields, and are called furze balls, and sets them on fire 
under the hive. The smoke gets in among the bees, 
and makes them drop down as if they were dead. 

But, I am happy to say, they come to life again, 
though not before their beautiful comb with all its 
nice honey has been carried away. 

There is a bird called the honey-guide, that lives 
in Africa, in the country of the Hottentots. It is 
rather larger than a sparrow, and is so fond of honey 
that it is always looking for some. There are no bee¬ 
hives in that country, but the bees make their nests 
in the hollow of a tree, or in some other sheltered 
place. 

The bird is sure to find its way to the bee’s-nest, 
but it does not like to attack it, for fear of being stung. 
So it begins to call out in its own way for some one 
else to come; it makes a loud piercing cry, that is well 
known by all who are within hearing. 

Sometimes the bear is lurking about among the 
trees, and he hears it; and by-and-by he sees the bird 


THE HONEY 


123 



The bear follows for he loves the taste of honey. 


perched on some branch close by. The bird flies 
towards the nest of the poor unsuspecting bees, and 
the bear follows; for he loves the taste of honey, and 
this is not the first time, by any means, that he has 
gone after the honey-guide. He does not much care 
about the stings, though they sometimes put him into 
a great passion. At any rate, he pulls out the nest 
with his feet and paws, and feasts on the honey; and 
while the bear is eating, the bird is sure to get as 
much as it wants. 

The Hottentot knows the voice of the honey- 




124 


AUNT MARTHA’S CORNER CUPBOARD 


guide, and follows it with great delight. When he 
reaches the nest, he does not forget his kind friend; 
he takes care to leave behind that part of the comb 
which contains the eggs and the little grubs, for the 
bird likes these better even than the honey. 

And he would not catch or kill the honey-guide 
for any reward that could be offered. A traveller once 
told a Hottentot that he would give him any number 
of glass beads and a great deal of tobacco, if he would 
set a trap for the honey-guide. But the Hottentot 
would do nothing of the kind. 

“The bird is our friend,’’ he said, “and we will not 
betray it!” 

Richard and Charley were very sorry when Aunt 
Martha came to the end of her story, and they might 
have said more about their regret that it was to be 
the last, had not Charley espied old Sally getting the 
jar of honey out of the cupboard. 

What was she going to do with it? Charley was 
not wrong in guessing; although, on sitting down 
to tea, he made believe to look surprised at a nice slice 
of bread and honey on the plate before him. How 
good it was! 

He asked Aunt Martha why she did not keep bees, 
she had so many flowers in the garden. 

Aunt Martha said she had thought about it, and 
that perhaps next time they came to see her, they 
might find she had set up a bee-house. 


THE HONEY 


125 


The next day, the boys returned to school. Aunt 
Martha was very sorry to part with them but old 
Sally predicted they were going back to learn, and 
she was not a bit afraid of their turning out dunces. 

Old Sally was right; for the two boys had no 
sooner got back to school than they set to work in 
earnest: indeed, the very first thing they did was to 
pull out of their desk their dog’s-eared geography. 
They wanted to see if it said anything about the 
places their aunt had told them of in her stories. When 
they found that it did, they hastened from one to an¬ 
other of the great maps which hung on the school 
room wall, talking all the time about Brazil and 
China, Zante and Corinth. One would have thought 
they had just come back from a voyage round the 
world! 











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